For most, the warmth of spring eventually comes to swallow
winter. But for the 842,000 children presently living in
government-run orphanages in Russia, reports Childrens
HopeChest, an evangelical organization doing multifaceted work
with orphans, a piercing cold permeates their futures in the form
of a social, spiritual, and emotional freezeregardless of
season. From the time they enter an orphanage until they
"graduate" into a society that has few, if any,
productive placements for them, the motherless and fatherless in
Russia struggle against staggering odds for legitimacy, hope, and
freedom.

Without a viable adoption or foster-care system, the
orphanages are the default destination for the Russian children
who, at a rate of 113,000 a year, are abandoned by their parents
due to alcoholism, poverty, or other stresses.

In 1998, Human Rights Watch reported that Russian policy
toward orphaned children violated as many as 20 of the 41
articles in the U.N.s "Convention on the Rights of the
Child." Descriptions of brutal practices like tethering
children to their beds and sadistic, staff-condoned violence
against younger children by their older peers created a damning
portrait of cruelty, neglect, and oppression during these
childrens institutionalized years.

Life isnt easier when the children leave the
institutions, usually between the ages of 16 and 18. The
CoMission for Children at Risk reports that 60 percent of all
girls leaving orphanages fall into prostitution, 70 percent of
boys end up on the streets or in jail, and 15 percent of orphans
commit suicide within the first two years of being on their own.
Through these startling reports, one begins to see the emergence
of a new gulag system in Russiaa system holding more than
half a million children in captivity.

When western evangelicals flooded into Russia during the early
1990s following the dramatic collapse of the Soviet Union, few if
any of them were focused on the plight of orphans. These were
times of mass evangelism, abundant Bible and tract distribution,
and near euphoria on the part of preachers, teachers, and
evangelists. The widespread notion that the freshly opened window
for the gospel would soon close fueled a sense of urgency,
creating a hit-and-run style of ministry that left the heads of
many Russian citizens spinning.

"Many stories circulate in Russia about American
Christians who come to town, hold evangelistic rallies, take
pictures, and leave," says George Steiner, founder of
Childrens HopeChest. "Unfortunately, many ministries
that came to Russia in 1991 and 1992 are no longer there. Some
departed for good reasons, but others simply did not commit to
stay through difficult days. We need to be a people committed to
following through on our promises. Trust-building is never
ending."

While distributing Bibles to children in the early 90s,
the trajectory of Steiners mission shifted when he
witnessed the deplorable conditions of orphanages. Steiner
noticed that because of frigid temperatures, inadequate heating,
and poor insulation, one could see the childrens breath inside
the buildings.

As he learned more about these childrens usual fates,
Steiner felt the disturbing paradox that, even as the hall of the
Great Kremlin Palace in Moscow was rented out for evangelistic
crusades, abandoned children languished in prison-like conditions
throughout Russia. Haunted by these images, he started
Childrens HopeChest to fight the entrenched systemic
hurdles facing Russian orphans. The organization now reaches more
than 10,000 orphans in Russia, Romania, and Ukraine. In Russia
alone, their efforts include 12 different programs that reach
children in the regions of Vladimir, Kostroma, and Ivanovo.

As they approach their first year of school, orphans are
routinely corralled before panels of doctors, psychologists, and
educators and labeled normal or abnormal. For the unlucky
children who find themselves diagnosed as abnormalaround
70,000 a year, according to Moscow-based Right of the
Childthey will wear the title oligophrenic, or
"small brained," a stigma that for the rest of their
lives will deny them a choice of career and the right to drive or
vote.

Furthermore, many children with correctable physical
impairments, such as a weak eye or a stutter, are sequestered in
orphanages as "imbeciles," although officials claim 100
percent accuracy in their diagnoses. This has been countered by
findings of independent investigations that estimate that as many
as 70 percent of children diagnosed oligophrenic were actually
average or above average in ability.

To be labeled "orphan," to say nothing of
oligophrenic, is in reality little more than a prison sentence
that robs children of a future. Regardless of an orphans
diagnosis, many of them fail to make the transition from
institutionalized living to the rigors of normal life once they
reach adulthood. Without viable alternatives or real guidance,
the estimated 15,000 orphans who "graduate" each year
frequently fall victim to prostitution and drugs. It is perhaps
not surprising that the first people to come along offering
security and freedomoftentimes pimps and drug
dealersfind easy prey in a demographic that has been
abandoned, mistreated, and abused by a steady stream of people,
including their own parents.

For Christians working in Russia, nothing but a relevant,
radical gospel will begin to address the needs of abandoned
children. A key verse for many of them is James 1:27, which sums
up the main essence of a "pure and undefiled" religion
as the visiting of orphans and widows in distress.

"I find it very interesting that thats the only
place in the Bible that it says very clearly pure and
undefiled religion equals this," says Tom Davis,
director of Childrens HopeChest. "You could say that
an impure religion is one that doesnt focus on
that." Its "amazing" to Davis that
Christians dont do more of such service and accompaniment.

Davis is following the path Childrens HopeChest founder
Steiner championed years before. Conservatively educated and
working as a youth pastor, he discovered his faith being
revolutionized on a trip to Russia in 1997. Surrounded by a group
of orphans who clung to him with intense need, he began to feel
God loving the children directly through him. Davis
suddenly understood himself as connected to a larger gospel, to a
kingdom whose king, above all else, is deeply in love with the
poor and the outcast. Davis says his ideas on living out the
"whole" gospel were forever galvanized.

"Its easy to have an evangelism crusade," says
Davis, his tone sober as he sits at an orphanage lunch table.
"The hard thing is getting in the boat with people, getting
our hands and our knees dirty with them. When you look at the
life of Jesus, he spent his time touching the leper and having
the children come to him. Its that unbelievable touch
ministry that made Jesus who he was. Thats what he calls us
to do."

Davis work through Childrens HopeChest reflects a
gospel committed to relevancy and justice. The
organizations holistic approach to ministry places the
spiritual, physical, and emotional needs of children on equal
footing. To accomplish this, they have become firmly planted in
Russias thick bureaucracy, with more than 70 nationals on
staff. Working within the framework of the Ministry of
Educationthe branch of government responsible for
orphansthey have created a small army of caring people who
work strategically with the needs of orphans.

A tiny U.S.-based staff employs Russian social workers,
dentists, medical professionals, psychologists, coffeehouse
managers, educational specialists, and almost 30 young
"disciplers" who travel regularly to orphanages.
Together, they have developed a variety of new initiatives that
offer orphans hope and a real future.

Models of ministry include connecting churches from the West
with orphans through sponsorship and church-led summer camps.
Churches sign on for a three- to five-year commitment, during
which members visit, pray, and provide support for a specific
orphanage. These relationships improve greatly the living
conditions of children. At some orphanages, adequate heating and
blankets become available for the first time. At others, children
hear their first Bible story or receive their first personal
gift. Reciprocally, involved church members are greatly affected
by an expanded vision of what it means to cultivate an
outcast-centered gospel.

A fitting illustration of this reciprocal process is found in
the testimony of John Smith, senior pastor of Concord United
Methodist Church in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. More than 10
percent of his 600-member congregation has been personally
involved in ministry to orphans through Childrens
HopeChest. "Those who go come back more sensitive to the
needs in our own community, more appreciative of our resources
and opportunities, and more committed to being Christs
ambassadors," Smith says. "My experience is that though
Ive taken some non-Christians to Russia, I havent
brought any back."

"Ministry Centers" were birthed as another strategic
effort to help orphans adjust to life after graduation from
orphanages. At ministry centers older orphans find safe places to
come for free medical care, access to legal help, and ongoing
relationship with committed staff members. Children can learn
basic computer skills, talk to a counselor, and play a game of
pool all in the same day. The centers are among the few programs
designed to steer orphans away from the precipice they face when
leaving their orphanagesa time that proves to be one of the
most volatile of their lives.

Childrens HopeChest has also developed "family
centers" to provide children with a homelike living
environment and trained Christian house parents. Because Russia
has virtually no viable adoption or foster-care system, this
program provides one of the few available alternatives to
orphanages. In a family center, children for the first time begin
to learn basic living skills such as cooking, maneuvering through
the bus system, and being responsible for ones own
possessions. In many cases, a family center is the closest thing
to real family that an orphan has ever experienced.

Although lacking the "fireworks" and drama of an
evangelistic crusade, these ministries represent real
opportunities for orphans, where before there were only dead
ends. They are also indicative of a movement. Conservative
estimates by the CoMission for Children at Risk place the number
of Western Christian organizations working with orphans in Russia
at well over 300a number that doesnt include the work
of indigenous groups or the many non-Christian agencies working
with children. From humanitarian aid to adoption services to
orphanage sponsorship, many Christians in Russia are seeking to
put into practice nothing short of the "whole"
gospela gospel through which the everyday lives of orphans
are brightened and filled with hope.

"I think that if you were to walk into a place like
this," says Tom Davis, gesturing to a dilapidated building
that houses more than 200 orphans, "and tell them Jesus
loves them, but [then you] never came back, what would you really
be saying?" Davis believes the gospel mandates coming back,
improving the lives of these young people, and doing something to
change their situation. "Because," he says, "Jesus
loves them enough to redeem their souls and to redeem them
out of their circumstances. We dont see the two as separate
in any way."

Josh Andersen was a freelance writer who had recently visited
Russia on a trip sponsored by Childrens HopeChest when this article appeared.

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